THE UNION OF THE TWO FACTORS.

But our evil has not stopped here. Owing to the mental capacity of some of
these speculators, and to certain conditions in South African public life,
the conception suggested itself to them: that were it possible to obtain
complete control of the political machinery in any African State (notably of
the Cape Colony), and could they hold the reins of Government in their own
hands, their power for increasing their wealth, for resisting taxation upon
those industries of which they possessed monopolies, and for
ex-
extending
page: 38 tending their commercial
exploitations into adjoining territories, would be immeasurably increased.

This conception has been seized and carried out.

The means of its accomplishment in the Cape Colony has been through the
complete control gained by the Monopolists over the only group in South
Africa whom they could hope to guide, and whom, in view of their
extra-colonial plans, it was necessary to keep pacified and well in hand.

It is this command of the political machinery of the country by the
Monopolist, owing to his union with one
page: 39
section, which constitutes the real disease from which the Cape Colony is
suffering. It is this which lies at the back of our Retrogressive Movement.

For the Monopolist Party, determined to obtain control of the political
machinery, could only do so by purchasing the co-operation of some truly
South African body. The more shrewd and modern section of South
Africans—professional men, merchants, go-ahead newspaper-reading
farmers—are, very many of them, unpurchasable; and those who are not would
demand a high price in concessions local and personal, and even then
could
page: 40 not be blindly led. Our working
population being mainly native, and very slightly enfranchised, is not at
the present day, and will not be for a long time to come, a party powerful
enough to make its support a strength to any leader. Then there remained for
the Speculatist and Monopolist Party but one body to whom it could turn with
any hope that it would place it in power. This body was the Retrogressive
Element in the Bond Party. It was purchased, not by the outlay of capital,
nor by offers of place and power to its members, but, much more cheaply for
the Monopolist, by the simple
page: 41 expedient of
offering to support those Retrogressive measures which without his aid could
never have found a place on our Colonial Statute-book.

The Kafir's back and the poor man's enhanced outlay on the necessaries of
life pay the Monopolist's bribe.

On the other hand, the Retrogressive Element, once enabled to pass such
measures as lay nearest its heart by the cooperation of the Monopolist with
his skill and intelligence, is willing to give him a perfectly free hand,
and support him in all measures which do not touch its Retrogressive
instincts. We thus have the
page: 42 Retrogressive
Party supporting the Monopolist in carrying out measures in which he has no
interest or concern, and the Monopolist assisting the Retrogressive Party in
setting upon the Statute-book measures which are repugnant to his own common
sense and shrewd modern outlook. Taking advantage of that childlike
simplicity which is at once the weakness and the greatest charm of the Boer,
he leads him whither he would and also whither he would not.

It is from this unnatural marriage that are born those evils under which the
Colony groans to-day. It is a marriage which must end in rupture
page: 43 when the Retrogressive Party discover how,
instead of a union of affection, they have been led into one of convenience,
and that the bridegroom is quite ready to forsake his bride when she has
nothing more to give him.

Nevertheless, to-day it is this coalition which is unpicking the progressive
enactments of the past, which is enabling the Monopolist Party to carry out
unhampered its financial depredations here and in the Northern Territories.
It is this coalition which, by giving political power to enormously wealthy
individuals, is corroding our public life, till the principle that every
page: 44 man has his price and can be squared, if
you can only find his figure, is becoming an established dogma.

Worse than any of those retrogressive measures which the Bondsman, in
simplicity and sincerity, desires to see enacted are those measures which he
allows others to take, who are neither simple nor sincere.